Construction
Accidents

Premises
Liability

Motor Vehicle
Accidents

Long Island charter bus wreck injures teens

On Behalf of | Apr 18, 2018 | Motor Vehicle Accidents

Authorities investigating the cause of a charter bus collision on Sunday, April 8 have shifted their focus to the non-commercial GPS device installed on the bus. It allegedly failed to warn the driver of a low-clearance overpass on Long Island’s Southern State Parkway, which lead directly to the crash.

The accident, which happened shortly after 9 p.m., caused serious injuries to at least two high school students on board. Others with less severe injuries also required treatment and were later released from medical facilities in the region.

The preventable bus wreck happened as the Journey Bus Tours commercial transport vehicle was headed east on the return from JFK Airport. At the time of the crash, the driver, 38 students from multiple schools and five chaperones were aboard. The group had just toured eastern Europe.

According to police, the 43-year-old driver was remorseful about the collision that sheared off the top half of the bus. He was a licensed commercial driver, and while toxicology reports are still pending, he was not believed to have been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash.

From evidence that investigators were able to recover, it’s believed that the GPS device installed on the bus failed to alert the driver that the bus would not clear the 7 foot, 10 inch minimum clearance of the parkway’s overpass. Commercial traffic, including tractor-trailers and buses, are not allowed to ride on the Southern State Parkway.

A major with the New York State Police stated that there were no indications that the driver attempted to slow down or stop prior to striking the bottom of the overpass.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation (DOT) said that a state-of-the-art warning system was being installed along that stretch of road in Lakeview. The high-tech system was designed to send out invisible beams that could detect vehicles too tall to safely clear these low overpasses. Many were built as long as 80 years ago when vehicles were not manufactured to be so large. The system was still undergoing testing at the time of the crash.

The spokesperson added that there was signage listing vehicle height restrictions and prohibiting commercial vehicles from driving on the parkway.

Source: WABC TV, “Non-commercial GPS eyed in Long Island bus crash that injured dozens,” April 10, 2018

Archives

Verdicts &
Settlements

$3.75 Million

settlement for a construction worker injured by falling metal mesh

Verdicts & Settlements

$3.5 Million

Million for a carpenter injured on a construction site by a falling metal clamp

Verdicts & Settlements

$3 Million

for a 35 year old Carpenter injured when his arm became partially impaled on an improperly exposed metal support (rebar) at a construction site.

Verdicts & Settlements

$2 Million

for a woman who sustained multiple serious injuries after being struck by a hit and run driver in Manhattan.

Verdicts & Settlements

$1.825 Million

Verdict for a 29 year old construction worker injured during the building of the World Trade Center Memorial.

Verdicts & Settlements

$1.475 Million

for a Carpenter who was injured when the scaffold he was working upon collapsed.

Verdicts & Settlements

$1.2 Million

for a 35 year old Cement and Concrete worker from Queens who sustained serious injuries to his back when he slipped on debris and refuse.

Verdicts & Settlements

$1.2 Million

for a Construction worker and young father in the Bronx who was fatally electrocuted while on a scaffold.

Verdicts & Settlements

$950,000

for two sisters in high school who sustained serious injuries when struck by a vehicle that mounted the sidewalk in Brooklyn as they waited for the bus to take them to school.

Verdicts & Settlements

$825,000

for a woman injured as a passenger in an accident involving a bus and a car in the Bronx.

Verdicts & Settlements

$777,000

for an Ironworker on Long Island who sustained serious injuries when he fell from a ladder which slid out from under him due to icy footing.

Verdicts & Settlements

$750,000

for a surgeon who sustained a broken knee in a motor vehicle accident (January, 2017).

Verdicts & Settlements

$750,000

for a man severely burned in his apartment by excessively hot shower water (Sept. 2020).

Verdicts & Settlements

$660,000

verdict for a 35 year old Cement and Concrete laborer who was injured when the scaffold he was walking upon collapsed.

Verdicts & Settlements

$650,000

for a cement and concrete worker who slipped and fell over construction debris.

Verdicts & Settlements

$650,000

for a Cement and Concrete worker who injured his back as a result of slipping upon a discarded pipe and falling down a flight of steps.

Verdicts & Settlements

$500,000

for a Nursing Home resident injured due to lack of proper care.

Verdicts & Settlements

$325,000

for a woman who sustained multiple serious injuries to her shoulder as a result of a trip and fall upon a defective sidewalk at a construction project in Manhattan.

Verdicts & Settlements

$250,000

verdict in the exact amount demanded by our office for our client, but refused by the responsible defendants, was awarded by the jury to our client who sustained a fractured elbow as a result of a fall upon a badly broken sidewalk.

Verdicts & Settlements

$325,000

for a young woman who sustained a fractured ankle as a result of a fall on soapy steps in her apartment building in the Bronx.

Verdicts & Settlements

$495,000

for a young mother who was struck by a car while crossing the street near her home in Queens sustaining serious injuries to her leg requiring the surgical placement of a metal plate and screws.

Verdicts & Settlements

$600,000

for a woman who sustained multiple injuries as a passenger in a motor vehicle accident.

Verdicts & Settlements

$425,000

was secured by our office for a Cement and Concrete worker injured when a work area collapsed beneath him.

Verdicts & Settlements

$400,000

for a woman struck from behind by a car as she walked to a supermarket in a shopping center parking lot in Yonkers.

Verdicts & Settlements

$200,000

for a young man, 15 years of age, who sustained a partial tear of the rotator cuff of his right shoulder, which has now healed without any limitation upon his activities.

Verdicts & Settlements

$325,000

for a school principal in the Bronx who tripped and fell over a construction plate in the school parking lot.

Verdicts & Settlements

$300,000

for a young Cement and Concrete worker who was struck by falling debris dislodged from a building by a swinging crane.

Verdicts & Settlements

$250,000

for a Cement and Concrete worker injured as a result of a fall at a Manhattan construction site.

Verdicts & Settlements

$300,000

for a school teacher in the Bronx who sustained an injury to her shoulder when she tripped and fell due to negligently placed computer wiring.

Verdicts & Settlements

$275,000

to a Construction laborer doing bridge work whose arm was fractured when falling construction material caused him to fall into the East River and onto debris.

Verdicts & Settlements

$450,000

for a child injured when a table fell on him in a laundromat in Queens.

Verdicts & Settlements

$450,000

verdict for a Volunteer Firefighter in Westchester who sustained injuries in the course of fighting a fire.

Verdicts & Settlements

10 Best Attorney 2017-2023 Client Satisfaction American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys
NTL Top 100 Member Seal
Super-lawyers-Howard-r-sanders2022
New York Magazine
Howard R. Sanders Esq. BBB Business Review
FindLaw Network